Titian painting damaged during Fire in Venice Church (Italy)

On august 29th 2010, at 10 p.m., a fire has started at the roof level of the building near the Venice Salute Church. The fire, which could be an arson (witnesses have heard two explosions and the fire started in two different points), spread immediately to the roof of the church. Firefighters have used large amounts of water to limit the spread of the blaze, in order to avoid the collapse of the roofs of the rooms of the church.

In few hours the fire has been extinguished.

The morning after the fire, the Titian (Tiziano Vecellio) painting “Davide and Goliath” has been removed from its location (in a room directly connected to the church main hall) in order to limit damages due to water used by firefigthers.

The roof of the Santa Maria della Salute Church, threatened by the fire, is considered one of the most remarkable in Venice.

In the recent years firefigthers have started using to extinguish fires water from the new city fire hydrant system. Such water is much less aggressive than the lagoon water, used until few years ago and it has limited damages to the painting.